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Half Life 2 Beta
Half-Life 2 Beta (also know as Half-Life 2 Alpha, the leak, or the Beta), is a generic name that refers to Half-Life 2 from 1999 to its release in 2004. Playable Files The Files in the 2003 Playable Leak are avalable in 2 Versions: the "Anon" Beta and the "Russian" Beta Which are only Slightly different. The Russian Beta for example has a proper installer and loader while the Anon is a .Zip. and that the Russian Beta Has some weapons that aren't in the Anon leak like: The Immolator the Combine Guard Gun The game at the time was Work In Progress and was very incomplete and unstable, some maps dont load and chapters like the Air Exchange the Borealis and the SkyScraper to name a few, where already cut. The cuts in the final game where not made due to the leak like some think, but for other reasons earlier in the Dev process. Features of the Playable Leak include *the Interface seems to be based on the Half Life 1 Steam menu, for example, it has Software, OpenGL, and Direct X Listed as available renderers in the "Video" Tab. When the source engine only supports Direct X *There is extremely basic multiplayer support. It can support very few players. Interestingly, one of the tabs in the "Create a server" option is named "CPU Players". *The game treats each single-player session like multiplayer; there is a scoreboard that can be brought up with TAB, and the player can type messages. If the player wants to follow the storyline, it has to access the map through the console, otherwise the next map will not load. It is however quite difficult to follow the incomplete storyline, and several maps won't load and crash the game. *There is basic DirectX6 support, which consists of a few low-poly character models and a DirectX6 version of one of the Coast maps. *The engine is of course less optimized than the one used by the final game. *There is no built-in anti-aliasing. It can however be achieved with most of recent graphic cards that override the games settings. *The source code contains a folder called 'ivp' (IVP stands for Ipion Virtual Physics, a physics engine from Ipion Software that was bought out and brought into Havok 1) which contains Source's original physics engine from early 2001 containing IVP code (dating from 1999-2000) incorporated into the Havok code. The VPhysics engine based off Havok 2 is also present in a separate folder and is the final version retained in the Source engine. *Several sound files from chapters already cut in the playable version can still be found in the sound folders, such as early BreenCast clips by the The Consul, Conscript dialog involving an Sniper, Conscripts chatter in the SkyScraper, a scripted sequence involving three homeless Citizens talking about a Vienna sausages can (one of the them has the same voice as Odell) in a City 17 underground prototype (maps called "vienna_talk" and "vienna3" were last edited in 2003)[2], a scene involving Alyx (voiced by another woman) and a Strider chase, and dialogues and music from the film Aliens, to be used for ip sync tests in the maps "aliens_test" and "testroom_ripley" (the dialogues) and the surreal map "ickypop" (the music) List of demonstrations *G-Man emotions *Two Source engine demonstrations *Docks *Kliener's Lab *Traptown *Barricade *Bugbait *Coastline *Strider *Tunnels The original demos, .cfg files used to record the demos and .bat files (demoloop.bat) used to start the demos played at E3, are included in the 2003 leak, but there are so many differences between the engine used at E3 and the leak's that it is impossible to play them. Of note is that the 2003 leaked Beta all the demonstrations are broken in one way or another. Most stem from missing models and incorrect usage of props (ex. the game uses a prop_phys for a model, when the engine only thinks that prop can be prop_static, so it deletes it). Notes *The G-Man emotions demo will not work period, as the Half-Life G-Man model produces an error, thus preventing the movie from even starting. *The Source engine demos are greatly affected by certain models being the wrong version; most of the revolving slabs at the start will turn into error signs. The camera is broken, as it was facing only one direction. G-Man immediately dies when spawned, and the camera will not change direction when the Headcrab knocks it over. The ground eruption at the start of the physics demo never works, but that demo is otherwise the same. *Kleiner's Lab is also extremely broken; Alyx and Kleiner do not walk around and their lips do not move. In addition, most of the dialog is not in the game, generating a great amount of errors. However, the player can still watch the Strider blow up the wall and get the SMG from Alyx, even though she lacks the "give the player the SMG" animation. *Traptown is extremely broken as well. The metal bars that are supposed to hit the soldiers around halfway through the demo are released as soon as the map begins because the game deletes the objects restraining it. The "Troop forcing open the door" scripted sequence only works about half of the time, the soldier on the third floor of the building never appears, the radiator constraint is broken, tossing a grenade under the trash can will crash the game, and the blade trap at the end does not work. *Coastline is the only demo that is still in good shape, but it lacks a sound effect (a soldier saying "Stop!" as the player get near the back of the harbor). Otherwise, it works. E3 demonstrations cut from the final game .Many E3 2003 demonstrations never made the cut, either. The most popular among users, found in the 2003 leak as unfinished maps, are: *Terminal, whose remnants can still be found today on the Half-Life 2 box art. It was also used in the Half-Life 2 teaser trailer. The column mounted by a horse statue however made the final cut in the map preceding Gordon's first travel into the Citadel. *Industrial, which featured an extremely early concept, the Combine Factories, featuring children. *Depot, a map showing parts of the Wasteland area surrounding the Depot and a lighthouse. The Depot was kept for the Nova Prospekt level, while the lighthouse is featured in the rebel base LightHouse Point. Some other maps, which are very incomplete, are: *Strider, which was actually almost complete, with the exception of missing scripts which made it unplayable. Some parts of it were later recycled to use in the Hydra demo. One of the earliest official Half-Life 2 screenshots shows the working map. It is one of the only pictures which shows a group of citizens with gas masks, when the Air Exchange was still in the storyline, intoxicating the air. It was also used in the teaser trailer. Its design was based of the very first Half-Life 2 demo, Get Your Free TVs!. *Sniper, which started as a player running through a ruin-covered street to kill a sniper. This is also the earliest leaked map using the sniper. The E3 preview of Gordon visiting Kleiner's Lab after first meeting Alyx contains different dialog between Alyx and Kleiner than in the version viewable online: it shows a slightly different design for Alyx and ends with the lab being attacked by Striders, an event that does not occur in the final game. Menus